Doom's Day
by aBIGpoptart
Summary: James Potter attempts key word: atempts to understand why anyone would want to play field hockey.


The characters belong to JK Rowling.

Doom's Day…a.k.a. the Day James Potter Tried (and Failed) at Field Hockey.

"WHAT THE HECK! ARE YOU BLIND? THAT WAS A _FOUL_!" an aggravated Sirius yelled at the television.

The television, a wonderful devise bought by Lily and abused by the marauders, was only used to watch sports games and the occasional news broadcast. Lily had convinced James to buy the extra magical channels, which made every weekend another loud experience of quidditch matches.

Lily was never one to look forward to the next quidditch game or have lunch discussing the possible teams for the finals. What did she know about each team's weaknesses and strengths, and how they compared to other teams? Not much at first, but, by having a boyfriend of James Potter and befriending the rest of the marauders, she learned more than she ever wanted. Still, having the knowledge did not her look forward to each quidditch match. But, like a good girlfriend, she still stayed with James as he watched and tried to look like she was as excited as he was.

Suddenly James sat up right on the couch next to her, "NO! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT FOUL? Worse of ref I've ever seen…" he yelled at the screen. Lily was happy the T.V. did not have feelings; if it did she would have to put it through therapy for all the abuse it received.

The team scored again and James threw a chip at the screen in a defeated protest. Lily put her arm around his shoulders in a hopefully comforting manner, and James leaned back onto the couch with a heavy sigh. "They can't pull through without Wallaby. Look at the team, Lily. They seems so lost; I'm never gonna forgive Wallaby for retiring. He was only 27! Still had a few more years until-" James suddenly was fully alert on the game again as his team's chasers moved in a weaving formation towards the goal.

"Keep it….keep it. Y-" James jumped up and cheered as they finally scored, but misjudged his sudden bounce from the couch and ran his toe into the coffee table, "OW! Damn table!"

Lily held in a laugh; James really got too involved in some games. "You alright?" she asked.

"No…make it better?" James sat down and smiled at her. Quidditch, Beer, and Girls; what more could a guy ask for? A winning Quidditch team maybe, but James wasn't going to hold his breath. Lily kissed his bicep, or lack thereof, then leaned her head gently on his arm. At the same time she gave James' thigh a light squeeze with her left hand, letting her fingers linger there, then rest in the same spot. James gave Lily a light kiss on the top of her head. It was hard to manage, but he was able to move his neck to that angle in the end.

"You're sweet." Lily lightly said with a gentle smile. He was acting like her boyfriend and not some freaky sports crazed eighteen year old in the middle on a Quidditch game. She was flattered; he usually lived up to the example of a stereotypical male.

"What?" ask James, "You didn't know that was a rule?" James looked as if he was disgusted to see Lily's face. He couldn't believe it; his girlfriend not knowing everything about his favorite sport. Impossible, but now…possible.

"Oh, don't act like it's such a big deal. I've played Field Hockey as long as I could remember and you have no clue how to play," Lily had that look on her face like she knew James was not going to have a good defense to that, and James tried to think of a good comeback.

Suddenly an idea popped into his head, "And when are any Field Hockey games on the TV, or people randomly playing them in the park? Never! Field Hockey is practically a dead sport, but Quidditch is everywhere! You'd have to be blind or a muggle, who are probably blind for not catching us, to not see Quidditch."

Lily had a weird look on her face, she was scheming something and James felt like he should run for cover before what she was thinking came into being. She smiled, "Have I played Quidditch with you?"

Oh god. Yes she had, and that was obvious. This wasn't a question she wanted to know the answer to; this was a question that required an answer that she already knew. This meant that his answer would later be held against him, and used to Lily's advantage. James sighed and let out a small, "Yeah"

"And have you played Field Hockey with me?"

Again, an answer that would be used to help establish James as holding the record for_ "most arguments consecutively lost to exceeding hot, yet witty, girlfriend_."

"Yeah"

"Well, maybe you should learn the rules to sports that I like before getting mad at me," Lily said sweetly, but too sweetly. James, again, thought of running for cover.

He did not like to admit it, but Lily won the argument. Later, he received a lot of making fun of and smug looks in his direction. James thought he would end up reading a rule book, or some other light form of punishment, but he should have known better. An argument with Lily does not end lightly. She takes advantage to the fact that she won, giving herself power over James' withering fate. Why did he have the feeling that he was going to experience something much like death?

James was peacefully eating his bagel and reading the paper when something yellow, blue, and shiny was in front of his face. He looked up and saw Lily holding the end of the stick…thing.

"What's this?" he asked.

Lily's face dropped. If she asked something like that concerning qudditch she would be in the lecture of her life. In a high voice she said, "What's a bludger?"

James was confused.

"_Really James,_ it's a Field Hockey stick," Lily said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Uh…cool"

Lily handed the end of the stick to James and he took hold of it. It was funny looking; a grip at the top, relatively straight a flat on one side, and arched on the other. At the end there was a tiny curve in the stick that looked pretty useless.

"Thanks. Why'd you get a stick?"

"I got two sticks and a few balls. You, sir, are going to learn how to play Field Hockey," Lily smiled like this was the most exciting thing in the world, "Today" she added as an afterthought.

"But I'm…busy" James tried to argue.

Lily gave him 'the look', "Really? You're going to try that?"

"Um…when are we going to get started?" James said with forced enthusiasm.

Lily then turned around and started walking outside, snapping her fingers above her head for James to follow her like he was a dog. He did feel like a dog. Like a dog being forced to go to the kennel while everyone else got to go have fun on vacation. It wasn't fair what people had to do for love.

Lily was already outside, leaving James alone in the flat, and if James could jump for joy, he wouldn't. He was going to play Field Hockey. He didn't care how stupid he sounded thinking this, but Field Hockey was an all-girl's sport. A wizard shouldn't have to lower himself to an all-girl's muggle sport. Didn't they wear skirts as part of their uniform? But he was a wizard, so if a muggle, a girl muggle at that, could do this so could James Potter.

And with that James went out to face his doom. Field Hockey.

James wiped a bead of sweat form his forehead. His back was killing him with all the crouching down. How were you supposed to run with the ball, and hit it at the same time? He had the longest stick in the store, but still was having difficulties. Worst of all, Lily was still going on like she just started. How was she not in pain? Was this normal for her?

Lily and James were now driving the ball back and forth. Hitting it was almost like playing golf, she had told him, you just don't follow through as much; don't let your swing go past your shoulders. Problem was James had never played golf. And even if he had, it most likely would not have helped him.

Lily hit the ball back to him and it rolled a bit to his right. James made a reach for it just like Lily had instructed. He crouched low to the ground and held the entire long side of the stick on the ground, waiting for the ball to run into the flat part of the stick. It made contact, stopped, and James heaved his body up to hit it back to Lily. The ball was sitting still and James swung as hard as he could at the little annoying round thing. He missed, like he had been doing the entire time.

"Stupid ball. Stupid little ball. You don't know how much I want to just hurt you…" James took another swing and made contact with the ball this time. It went about 6 yards. Why was field hockey played in the grass? All the bumps kept the ball from rolling like it was supposed to.

Ug. He hated when Lily won arguments.

"Lily, I'm tired. Can we please go inside?" James called, finally and indirectly admitting defeat to the stupid muggle-girl sport, but he really didn't care. He hurt too much, and he could just call muggles stupid and get on with it. He had a broomstick that flew after all, they only swept with theirs.

"Ok!" Lily ran over to him with way too much energy to be natural, "Tell me James, are you ever going to make fun of me for not knowing enough about certain sports? You know, we could actually get into a game; dribbling, passing, pull a few fakes, then go into hitting the ball while it's moving…"

"No. You can have all the field hockey you want. I'm sorry," James looked over to Lily and leaned in for a kiss. Lily returned the gesture and they stood there for a few minutes, lightly kissing, until James's back pain became too much to bear.

"Ow."

"What?" Lily asked, surprised.

James kept one arm around her and started to walk inside while saying, "My back. It kills, how can you take that abuse and still think that sport is fun? Crap! Uh…I mean, please don't make me play it again; I'm not making fun of your sport choices or anything! I'm just saying it's, uh, a hard sport to play. Yeah," he looked over at Lily and hoped he wasn't back in the dog house. He didn't think he should be, but Lily was a girl; who knew how her mind worked?

Lily smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder, "It's alright James. I guess I just have gotten used to the position, and you learn to bend your knees a lot. But you do get a lot of back muscles from this sport, which helps I guess."

"Oh really? I don't think I believe you on that one. You'll have to show me those sexy back muscles sometime so I deem that true. Actually, you might have to show them to me a few times just to get the message through. Wouldn't want me to forget, would you?"

Lily shook her head and looked up at him, but still kept her arm around his waist, "You know what? You're a git."

And with that Lily reached up and kissed him again. Maybe he was a git, but he was a good looking git who was also an awesome kisser. Sometimes he didn't know what to say and he became most romantic when he wasn't trying. He could go from an annoying prat to world's greatest boyfriend in minutes and Lily didn't want to imagine what her life would be like without him. He was _her_ git, and that's all that matters in the end; isn't it?

a/n: Sorry if that sounded rushed, it was written to Panic! At the Disco's cd A Fever You Can't Sweat Out…so I, naturally, was rocking out for over half this fic.


End file.
